CFP: Display: The Places and Spaces of Fashion (6/15/06; collection)

full name / name of organization:

John Potvin

contact email:

j_potvin99@yahoo.ca

DISPLAY: THE PLACES AND SPACES OF FASHION

The editor invites essays for a book which exploresthe relationship(s) between identity, display, space,and fashion. Recently, we have witnessed the globalexpansion of more spectacular and grandeur designerboutiques with designers collaborating with famedarchitects to become cutting-edge places of innovationand spectacle, while numerous exhibitions andinstitutions have lent their spaces to explore thevisual and material cultures of fashion. Never beforehas fashion played such a pivotal role in thecultural, social, and private lives of some many. Yetthe spaces and places which allow all this to takeplace remain obscured functioning simply as backdropswhen in fact they are pivotal to the creation ofmeaning and the very notion and function of display.While there is a rich and significant body of workwhich has interrogated the practices of shopping andfashion as object of consumption, critical attentionhas viewed the places and spaces of fashion simply interms of capitalism and consumer culture obliteratingthe myriad nuanced layers involved. In addition, morerecently, much has been made of the connections,metaphorical or otherwise, between fashion andarchitecture, paying little attention to the materialand visual connections, objects and bodies interactingin and negotiating the spaces of fashion. In otherwords, attention has been paid to thesurface/flesh/fabric of fashion and architecture, andlittle to the depth/interior/insides of these placesand spaces. This volume hopes to explore the displayof fashion as a site of spectacle, desire, pleasure,identity, and performance. In sum, what we arediscussing here is the topography and spatialrepresentations of fashion.

The editor invites papers both historical andtheoretical which address either or all of thefollowing central core themes:- how spaces, established either temporarily orpermanently, define fashion’s meaning and knowledgefor society or the individual;- the sites of production, circulation, exhibition,consumption, and promotion of fashion; and- the spatial interstices which provide for a bondbetween embodied consumers/spectators and fashionobjects.

Topics may include, but are not limited to, thefollowing spatial structures/narratives:• Boudoirs/closets/change rooms• Museum/gallery exhibitions• Spaces of protest through fashion• Movement and navigation of the body• The senses and the phenomenological• Department stores and boutiques• Runway/fashion shows• Window displays/store fronts/mannequins• Trade shows (international or national)• Tailor shops• Other cultural venues whose primary purpose hasnothing to do with fashion, but whose spaces and theliterature pertaining to its renown as a centre ofdisplay has made it significant, such as operas,theaters, nightclubs or other specific events/venues• Show rooms/work rooms• The body’s relationships to the spaces of fashion• The relationship of ‘fine art’ to the display offashion• Performative aspect of being ‘in’ spaces of and‘looking’ at display• The blurring of the ideals of private/public,inside/outside, personal/social, depth/surface• Fashion districts as they function as a displaywithin the context of the city as a whole• Ateliers (private and couture showrooms)• Display as pedagogical tool for fashion students• Virtual and cyber spaces of display and sartorialinteraction

The editor seeks contributions from scholars andcurators working in any geographic location between1700-2006.

Please submit a 500-750 word abstract (for completedpapers to be in the range of 5000 to 7000 wordsincluding endnotes), in addition to a 200 wordrelevant bio. by email.

Deadline for abstracts and bio. (and if availablecompleted paper): Friday 16 June 2006.

Notification of selection will be made early July2006.

Dr. John PotvinAssistant ProfessorSchool of Fine Art and MusicUniversity of GuelphCanadaj_potvin99_at_yahoo.ca